The Tumult of Thorn (Toruń) (), also called Blood-Bath of Thorn () refers to executions ordered in 1724 by the Polish supreme court. During a tumult among Protestants and Roman Catholics in the city of Thorn (Toruń), Royal Prussia, a Jesuit collegium had been devastated by a crowd of Protestants. The mayor and nine other Lutheran officials were blamed for neglect of duty and were executed on 7 December 1724. The executions damaged Poland's reputation in Protestant Europe and among the leading thinkers of Enlightenment.

Background

The city was founded by crusading German knights of the Teutonic Order and granted Kulm law city rights in 1233. More settlers arrived, and Franciscan and Dominican monks as well. In the 15th century, after becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the policy of the Order, citizen of the Order's Monastic state organized themselves into the Prussian Confederation, and seceded in 1454 with the help of the Polish Crown. The resulting Thirteen Years' War ended in 1466 with the Second Peace of Thorn, in which the province of Royal Prussia was created and incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland .

After the secularization of the Order's remaining Prussian territory in 1525, the newly formed Duchy of Prussia adopted Lutheranism, the first state to do so. During the Protestant Reformation, also the mostly German-populated Royal Prussia adopted Protestantism in 1557, while the majority of the Kingdom of Poland remained Roman Catholic. During the tenure of office of the mayor (Bürgermeister) Heinrich Stroband (1586-1609), the city became centralised and power went into the hands of its city council. At that time, Poland was largely tolerant in religious affairs. However, this gradually changed with the advent of Counter-Reformation.

In 1595, the Jesuits arrived to promote the Counter-Reformation, taking control of the Church of St. John. Protestant city officials tried to limit the influx of a Catholic population into the city, as Catholics (Jesuits and Dominican monks) already controlled most churches, leaving only St. Mary to the Protestant citizens.

In the second half of the 17th century, tensions between Catholics and Protestants grew. In 1645, a Colloquium Charitativum, a discussion between the leaders of the rival creeds, resulted in no agreement. Just as the religious tensions in the rest of Europe settled down after the bloody Thirty Years' War and Peace of Westphalia, in the once very tolerant Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the situation was worsening. From 1682, St. Mary's Church had to be guarded by a Lutheran Bürgerwehr (militia) during the Feast of Corpus Christi processions, as the assembled Catholics might have occupied this church as well. More violent conflicts occurred in 1688 and 1721.

1724 Events

On 16 and 17 July 1724, when the Jesuits held another procession, fights between pupils of the Jesuits and Lutheran inhabitants occurred as Jesuit pupils accused the gathered Lutherans of showing disrespect to Holy Mary, by not taking their hats off during the procession and not kneeling before her statue. In the following argument, a Catholic student named Stanisław Lisiecki was arrested by Lutheran militia. In response, pupils of the Jesuits dragged a pupil named Jan Nagórny of the Lutheran Gymnasium into their monastery, demanding that Lisiecki be released. After which a crowd assembled in front of the monastery to demand his release. Rösner, who in that year served as president of the town council, ordered the town militia to dissolve the angry mob, but the commander disobeyed, as did the "citizen guards". Only the "crown guards", loyal to the king, could eventually pacify the scene, yet only after the crowd had entered the Jesuit building, causing damage.. Several Jesuits were beaten, portraits of Catholic Saints were defiled, and the main altar was partially destroyed. Afterwards many books and paintings were thrown out into a pile and set on fire.

After this event, both Jesuits and Dominicans tried to persuade the mayor, Johann Gottfried Rösner, and ten other leading citizens, all of them Prussian German Protestants, to convert to Roman Catholicism. They declined, and stayed in the city despite the pressure when the Jesuits sued them at the royal supreme court in Warsaw. The court was held during the second monarchy of August II the Strong of Saxony in the era of the Silent Sejm, a time in which the Russian Empire dictated Polish internal policy. August, who had converted to Catholicism to be elected to the Polish throne, regretted not to be in a position to pardon the convicts.

Rösner and twelve other Lutherans were sentenced to death on 16 November. Prince Jerzy Dominik Lubomirski led a regiment of soldiers to the city to execute the verdict. Rösner and other officials were to be decapitated for "neglecting their duty and countenancing tumult", while two others accused of profaning the Virgin were to be mutilated, quartered and burned.

One of the convicts converted to Catholicism and was spared, as was Rösner's predecessor and proxy, Jakob Heinrich Zerneke (1672–1741), a well-respected citizen and historian who had written the Thornische Chronica or Chronica Thornica in 1711. He received amnesty on 12 December and emigrated to Danzig (Gdańsk).

The only remaining Protestant church, St. Mary's, was also made Catholic again and given to Franciscan monks who celebrated a mass there on the day of the execution, 7 December 1724, which is now observed in remembrance of the Protestant martyrs. In addition, the majority of the town council was required to be Catholic from then on, but the citizens never elected that many Catholics to office since they were perceived as less educated. Lutheran possessions such as a school, a chapel and a printing press had to be handed over to Catholic control.

Aftermath

The event was presented by Brandenburg-Prussia as a proof of Polish intoleranceKarin Friedrich: : Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 187..
In large parts of Protestant Europe, the "blood court" or "blood-bath of Thorn", reminiscent of witch-hunts, damaged Poland's reputation of tolerance. Over 165 publications and countless newspapers reported about the event. Decades later, during the Partitions of Poland, Voltaire recalled the sentencing of Protestants an example "of the religious intolerance of the Poles"

A later pastor at Thorn, Franz Jacobi, researched and wrote about the events and stated that the onesided unjust convictions and executions outraged and nearly caused a European war.

In Polish history books, the event rarely finds mentionNorman Davies, God's Playground: : in Two Volumes, pp. 139–41.. The Polish name Tumult Toruński avoids mentioning the ensuing executions, as does Tumult of Thorn, used by some historians. Norman Davies states that it was the sole event for which the name of Copernicus's birthplace was remembered in Protestant Europe.